


Was there ever any truth to you?

by Parasitikos



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Character Death, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:42:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21567835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Parasitikos/pseuds/Parasitikos
Summary: After Shin Malphur comes clean about who he is, Reliquary-23 tracks him down to mars to have a much needed "chat."
Relationships: Male Guardian/Shin Malphur
Kudos: 13





	Was there ever any truth to you?

**Author's Note:**

> I did NOT proof read this dhsjsks

Reliquary had known going in that tracking him would be difficult. An assassin, a conman, a liar. Flying under the radar was his speciality and he was hard pressed to find anyone better at it than him. Leads were a precious rarity and Reliquary found himself chasing after speculation and rumor, ghosts of a possibility, all across the inner solar system. How far had he gone down one path just to learn his target had gone the opposite? But this time, no, he was sure he had him, and every step he took through the red desert of Mars enforced that gut feeling. Somewhere, in these ruins of a golden age city, lie his prey. This close, there was no chance of catching him by surprise, though, and Reliquary thus made no attempt to hide himself as he closed the distance between them. He met him in his hideout, led by evidence left with the purpose of being found. He had been waiting. 

"Reliquary." He greeted cautiously, but he wasn't cautious enough, Reliquary thought. Reliquary closed the gap between them in three swift strides. In one movement he grabbed a fistful of the man's collar and slammed him against the wall, drawing his gun at the same time. He was given no resistance. 

"Shin Malphur," He bit, "You used me." He pressed the muzzle of his gun against the underside of his jaw. Shin stared him down from the bottom of his vision. Reliquary stared back, fierce, livid, his anger pouring forth with every hissed breath.  
"I tested you." Cool, measured, his voice was sandpaper against his body. It pissed him off.

"You lied to me!"

"I told you the truth."

"I trusted you!"

"I had to test you!" He snapped and Reliquary pulled the trigger, painting the wall with his viscera. He held his limp body there for a moment before he hauled it outside and threw it into the sand. The red sand wet with blood looked no different from normal.

"Rez him." He said, but was returned with silence. Shin's ghost was around, he was sure of that, but they declined to show themselves. "Rez him!" He shouted to the air, but still he was given nothing. He shouldn't have expected anything different. Killing his ghost was step one of killing him for good. He wanted him alive, though, not dead, and he'd have his own ghost do what Shin's refused. "Orion." His own ghost bobbed, its orange eye unwavering, and expanded, shell orbiting around his core. He filled Shin Malphur's corpse with light. The time it took to revive him stretched on for far too long, but when Shin Malphur finally awoke, he was staring down the barrel of the gun he'd put in Reliquary's hands. He laughed, low and rumbling. It grated in Reliquary's ears.

"You are fond of killing people with their own weapons aren't—" A violent crack and Shin grunted against the pain of a bullet to his shoulder. His fave twisted in anger: "What is it that you want, Reliquary? An apology?!" Yes, but he wouldn't admit it.

"How much of it was a lie?" He demanded, gun unwavering.

"I told you everything already." He hated that answer. He hated it so much that he fired another round into his shoulder. Shin didn't flinch at the pain, just snorted. His eyes never broke from Reliquary's. He felt small in his gaze, like he was just another pawn on the board of his long con. It took every ounce of his will to keep from stepping back, from looking away. After coming all the way here, after spending months tracking this ghost of a man, he couldn't back down. 

It was hard to keep his anger in check. His heart ached like it had been cleaved in two and he wanted to commit his suffering to Shin's flesh, but if Uldren had taught him anything, it was that revenge, cathartic and euphoric as it was, did little in the end. And he didn't want revenge. He didn't want _this_. But here they were with the hands they'd both been dealt.

He fought his words out from his choking throat. Pleading, _begging_ , but no less venomous, no less dangerous. "How much of it was a lie?" And the recognition clicked with Shin. He could see it in his face. He wasn't asking about Shin or about himself, he was asking about them. Together. Shin looked away first and for that Reliquary thought him a coward.

"Rel, listen, I swear I—" He tried to sit up, to reach out to him, but Reliquary pinned him back down with a boot to his chest. He grunted, but didn't resist. "Reliquary, I never meant for it—"

"But it did, Shin! It did end up like this! You _did_ this." And then he laughed, bitter and mocking, "Aren't you all for accountability?" Shin looked at him then with an expression of such sorrow that he wavered and he thought for the briefest of moments: Maybe an apology is all he needed. And then he remembered himself and he steadied his gun. "How much of it was a lie?"

"I didn't lie about us, Reliquary. I didn't deceive you on that or hide anything from you." He softened then, just above a whisper, "I love you, Reliquary." And Reliquary wanted nothing more than to fall down into his arms there and believe him at his word, but he couldn't. He'd entrusted him with his heart, he'd made himself vulnerable before him, let him close enough to kill. And then Shin told him everything he had done. Yor, his shadows, and their leader. The man with the golden gun and the renegade. Who was the real Shin Malphur? Did the man he'd fallen for ever exist in the first place? He wanted so desperately for Shin's words to be genuine, but he just couldn't bring himself to believe him.

"And how do I know you're telling the truth?" He questioned, calmer now, somber and muted. But the gun was still trained on Shin's head.

"You don't. All you have is faith. It's all we ever have."

Reliquary thought on his words and then thought on himself. Finally, he said: "I don't think I have any faith left to give you." And with that he pulled back his gun, Shin's gun, the last word, and he looked it over. One last look. One last shot. He fired it directly into Shin's head and was disappointed by his allowance. He left it in the sand next to him. By the time his ghost woke him the sand had taken any indication of Reliquary of ever having been there in the first place.


End file.
